Chapter 24
Down they plummeted, down, down, down through pitch-black nothingness, the force of the wind making Viri tumble and somersault through the air.
Reeve was somewhere to her left, falling just as swiftly, but she only knew that because she could hear him bellowing her name into the darkness.
She wanted to yell back, but her throat was closed again—not by the wraith’s mental tricks this time but from the sheer terror of how fast and deep they were dropping beneath the earth.
And then, suddenly, the darkness lifted as they descended into a cavernous chamber, the expansive space lit by glowing blue moss covering the rocky walls and reflecting off the glassy surface of an immense underground lake.
Viri only had a split second to fill her lungs and brace for impact before she slammed into the water, her body barking in pain and then flooding with shock as the ice-cold temperature registered. She kicked upward, breaking through the surface with a gasp.
“Reeve!” she called, spinning frantically in place. “REEVE!”
A splashing sound came from her right as he appeared, coughing up lake water and yelling her name. “VIRI!”
“Here!”
He whirled toward her, then swam her way, the blue glow illuminating his worried features.
“Are you—”
“I’m all r-right,” she answered quickly, her teeth chattering as she treaded water. “B-Bruised and c-c-cold, but alive. You?”
“Same,” Reeve said. He pointed to a cluster of rocks resting like a small island a short distance away. “We need to get out of this water—I think I saw the shoreline as we fell, but I’ll have to look around and get my bearings.”
Viri immediately started swimming toward the rocks, her limbs tingling with pins and needles by the time she reached them, making it difficult to grip the slippery stone and pull herself up.
With Reeve’s help, she levered her body out of the water, shivering violently as she stood upon the island that was barely as wide as they were tall.
“Elders, you look like death,” Reeve said, swiping water from his face—a useless endeavor, given his dripping hair—and eyeing her quaking form with concern.
“J-Just what every g-g-girl wants to hear,” Viri chattered through frozen lips.
Before she could stop him, Reeve stepped forward and pressed his palm to her chest, right over her heart. She jerked backward, nearly sliding off the rocks, but his other arm snaked around her waist, holding her in place.
“Easy, I’m not trying anything.” He winked. “No promises about later.”
Viri was so cold that she couldn’t even blush, though she did roll her eyes and try to pull away again.
Reeve didn’t release her, just furrowed his brow in concentration. “This might feel strange.”
That was all the warning Viri had before his hand heated and his magic flowed into her, spreading from her chest upward and outward, through her middle, along her arms, down her legs, his power thawing her from the inside out.
A moan left her as every trace of ice vanished, leaving her no longer trembling but toasty warm.
“Better?” Reeve asked, tucking a tendril of wet hair behind her ear before letting her go entirely.
Viri swallowed against everything his tender, thoughtful actions made her feel and straightened her still-soaked cloak. “All that magic, and you can’t even dry clothes? Some all-powerful mage you are.”
A low chuckle. “You’re welcome.” He indicated the lake surrounding them. “And we still have another swim ahead of us. My magic doesn’t come without a cost—I’ll dry us both fully once we’re out of here.”
Shame hit Viri, making her feel like an ungrateful toad. “What kind of cost?”
Reeve’s mouth curled upward, his eyes soft on hers. “The kind that was worth it.”
This time, Viri was warm enough to blush, and she was thankful that the blue haze over everything would keep it from showing. She cleared her throat and asked, “Where’s this shoreline you thought you saw?”
Reeve turned carefully on their rocky platform, squinting around the luminous cavern, before finally pointing at what Viri could now see herself.
“There’s a bank over there, and it looks like there’s natural light coming from beyond it, so I’d say that’s our way out.” He gauged the distance. “It’s a fair swim—do you think you can make it without turning into an icicle?”
His question was wry, but Viri answered seriously, her insides churning at the thought of getting back into the frigid lake. “As long as you’re happy to heat me up again once we reach the other side, I’ll be fine.”
The moment the words left her lips, she knew she’d made a colossal mistake—as evidenced by the devilish grin that stretched across Reeve’s face.
“I’ll heat you up any time you want, Viridia Solace.” His grin widened, his tone deepening with meaning—and promise. “No magic necessary.”
Viri’s cheeks warmed even more, but she refused to let him see her flustered. “Trust me, the only thing I want you for is your magic.”
“Ahh, so you’re finally admitting that you want me. We’re making progress.”
“That’s not what I—” Viri snapped her mouth shut and glared at him.
“Careful.” He touched his finger to her forehead. “They say if the wind changes, you’ll be stuck like that forever.”
Viri batted his hand away. “You’re infuriating.”
“If you mean infuriatingly good-looking, then yes, I am. I’m also infuriatingly charming, infuriatingly patient, infuriatingly loyal, infuriatingly—”
“—full of yourself,” Viri said for him.
“I think the word you mean is ‘confident,’ and yes, I’m that, too. Admit it, it’s one of your favorite things about me.”
“I don’t have any favorite things about you.”
“We both know that’s not true. Our little moment in the Summit showed us just how much you like my—”
Viri slammed her hand over his mouth, keeping him from finishing. His silver eyes shone ethereally in the blue light, his humor unmistakable. But then realization hit her and she released him to accuse, “You’re trying to distract me.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Why would I do that?”
“Because you know I don’t want to get back in the cold water.”
“Maybe I don’t want to get back in the cold water. Only one of us has magic hands.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Viri snorted despite herself.
“Unless those magic hands can summon a raft or pull one from your magepocket, then we might as well get this over with.” She turned on the narrow rock, preparing to dive back in. But she couldn’t bring herself to take the plunge.
Seeing her hesitation, Reeve said, “Do you remember our last summer together before—” He broke off, winced, then cleared his expression to continue, “You were determined to beat me and Brae across the river mouth between Lake Mirtis and River Mort. You made us swim it at least a hundred times before you finally won.”
A nostalgic smile touched Viri’s lips. “And then I made you swim it another hundred more, just to prove I could keep beating you.”
“Which you did, every time,” Reeve said, pride clear in his voice. “Let’s see if you still have what it takes.” He gestured toward the bank in the distance. “Race you?”
She acted as if she were thinking about it, when they both knew she was already going to be swimming as fast as she could to get out of the cold. “What do I get if I win?”
Reeve’s devilish grin returned. “My magic hands making you hot.”
Viri choked on a laugh. “And if you win?”
His eyes danced as he repeated, “My magic hands making you hot. It’s win-win for me.”
Viri bit her cheek to keep from laughing again. “You used to put a lot more thought into deciding prizes.”
“Maybe I just know what I want now.”
His meaning was impossible to miss, causing Viri’s heart to skip a beat, but she didn’t have time to dwell on his words or remind herself of everything he was—reaper, monster, killer—before he continued, “On three?”
She nodded, grateful to ignore what he’d just said and the contradictory feelings he elicited in her.
“One,” he counted, bending forward and preparing to dive.
“Two,” she said, copying his move and already dreading the cold she knew was coming.
“Thr—”
Reeve didn’t finish before something large and black shot out of the water and slammed into him, propelling him forcefully back into the lake.
Viri shouted his name, having no idea what had just happened.
He reappeared with a splash, coughing and cursing. “What the hell was—”
His words cut off when he vanished beneath the surface again, as if something had dragged him under. Viri’s pulse thundered in her ears as she peered frantically into the depths, but the blue glow barely penetrated the darkness.
“REEVE!” she yelled, unsheathing a dagger. “REEVE!”
A flare of light beneath the water, a tingle of ellixen, and Viri realized he was fighting whatever had pulled him down.
The next second, he reappeared again, but he wasn’t alone when he broke through the surface this time.
There was something wrapped around him, an inky black tentacle that thrust him up out of the water, high into the air—
And then slammed him against the rocks with a sickening crunch.
Viri’s stomach roiled at the sound, then roiled again at the sight of his shoulder bending at an unnatural angle and the blood dripping from his temple, his eyes dazed and unfocused from the hard blow to his head.
That was all she saw before the tentacle lifted him again, and this time, the body it belonged to rose partially out of the water, revealing a monstrous black creature with glowing orange eyes and too many appendages to count.
“Beware the wood. Beware the stone. Beware the beast. Who lost his throne,” the wraith’s song whispered in her memory. “Beware the lake. His sacred home. Beware the drop…Or die alone.”
Elders, this was what the wraith had warned them about—the drop from the stone temple into the lake. This was what had kept it from following them, the reason for its grotesque grin.
Dread rushed through Viri as she watched the lake monster haul Reeve beneath the water again, both his arms now trapped against his sides, stopping him from grabbing his weapons.
But even if he’d been able to retrieve them, they would have been useless in his hands; he was barely even conscious after being slammed like a rag doll against the rocks.
The only way he would survive this was if Viri fought for him—for both of them.
With Reeve’s life on the line, Viri didn’t think, she just acted, pulling a vial of zingzest from her cloak and downing the citrussy potion.
Her nerves electrified as adrenaline shot through her system, and when the beast resurfaced moments later with Reeve’s alarmingly limp form in its clutches, she didn’t hesitate.
Still holding one dagger in her right hand, she unsheathed her second—her last, after having thrown her third at the wraith—and leapt off the rock with a battle cry, barely noticing the frigid water thanks to Wynter’s potent tonic.
Her aim was true and she landed halfway along one of the monster’s slimy tentacles, instantly slashing into it with both her blades.
The sinewy flesh peeled open beneath her, gushing oily black blood that stung as it splattered across her hands.
But it was the beast’s unholy shriek that really made her skin crawl.
It had been angry before.
Now it was furious.
Suddenly, Viri was hanging on for dear life as the tentacle twisted and bucked, flinging her into the air and plunging her beneath the water before doing both again—and again, and again.
Another tentacle swatted at her, trying to loosen her grip, while a third sought to coil around her like the one that had ensnared Reeve, but she stabbed ferociously with her daggers, knowing that if it succeeded, neither she nor Reeve would be leaving the cavern alive.
“REEVE!” Viri screamed when he was tossed into the air again.
His eyelids fluttered at her call, telling her he was still alive, still fighting to stay conscious.
Something about her cry roused him enough to send out a surge of ellixen—but instead of using it to free himself, he blasted away a tentacle that Viri hadn’t seen coming toward her.
The monster shrieked in pain, and then Reeve’s mouth opened in a gasp as it squeezed him mercilessly, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as the beast dragged him under the water again—but this time, he didn’t reappear.
“NO!” Viri cried, knowing she had to do something, now, or he would drown.
With a grunt of effort, she scrambled her way up the tentacle she was straddling, gripping with her thighs and fighting off the monster’s other appendages with her blades, choking on water as it dunked her over and over again, trying to dislodge her.
But she wouldn’t let go—couldn’t let go.
Reeve still hadn’t resurfaced, and if he was unconscious beneath the water…
Terror threatened to overwhelm Viri, but she shoved it down, slashing her way through anything that tried to stop her, black blood stinging her flesh until she finally reached the point where the tentacle attached to the creature’s enormous body.
Her daggers were too small to hit anything vital—it would be like pricking a dragon with a pin—so she sheathed one and uncoiled her fillium, knowing she would have only one shot at this, and equally certain she was crazy for even thinking it possible.
But now wasn’t the time to doubt herself, so when another tentacle flew at her, instead of stabbing it away, she snagged it with her golden cord.
As predicted, the appendage flung her straight upward, and she used the momentum to swing herself in the direction of the beast’s head.
It didn’t have a chance to realize what she was doing before she thrust her dagger forward—
Right into one of its glowing orange eyes.
The monster’s shriek was so loud, so painful, that Viri nearly blacked out—and she might have if she hadn’t been thrown violently away, her fillium coming loose from the tentacle as she was hurled through the air and left to plummet down into the lake.
The fall was jarring enough to knock the wind out of her, and she rose to the surface with a wheeze, panting hard and treading water as she braced for the next attack.
Only, it didn’t come—the monster was retreating beneath the lake, its tentacles drawing inward to protect its remaining eye, like a dog running away to lick its wounds.
Viri could hardly believe it was over, her uncertainty so strong that she stayed on guard, even as the beast fled. But then, finally, the water rippled and Reeve appeared, his body released from the tentacle that had held him hostage.
Relief slammed into Viri at the sight of him, but it lasted only a second before she realized something was very wrong.
Because Reeve wasn’t moving.